Rich Explorer Guide

In the Rich Explorer scenario, you start off with a good amount of material resources, but only one person.

In-game, this is classified as a very difficult scenario.

Starting colonist

Skills

You must choose a colonist that is capable of survival skills. This includes:

• Dumb labor: Hauling, cleaning and cutting plants.
  • Though hauling can be done with animals, cleaning and plant cutting have to be done by colonists.
• Construction: Building shelter to live in.
• Medicine: Treating oneself when injured or sick.
  • Thankfully, you start off with the powerful glitterworld medicine, so you can afford to have someone with weaker medicine skill while still having decent treatment quality.
• Cooking: Making meals out of raw food and butchering creatures. While you can substitute raw berries for meals early on, it's not a reliable source of food.
• Violence: Defending oneself from mad animals or raiders, as well as hunt for food.
  • You can substitute it with Construction (building turrets) or Animals (training attack animals) in a pinch, but it's not recommended to do so unless the colonist is great at everything else.

If the colonist doesn't have these skills then it's best that you reroll until you have one that does. You don't need them to be interested in all of them, but if you do then it's a plus.

Some skills will make survival easier, but are not essential:

• Animals: Training animals isn't quite a necessity early-game, but will greatly compliment you in combat, provided you have sufficient food to train animals.
• Growing: Growing food crops. If you don't want to exclusively rely on hunting or gathering. Your early food stocks last for quite some time, and for 1-2 colonists hunting and gathering can allow you to survive.
  • This does not guarantee that a colonist is capable of plant cutting.
• Social: Recruiting new colonists and trading. If you are lucky enough to capture a raider then you can use your Social skills to turn them to your side.
• Mining: Extracting mineral resources. Useful for replenishing your supply of components or steel in early-mid game before traders show up who sell components.

Some other skills are better left for future colonists:

• Crafting: Making equipment and misc crafting. In early game there is not a need for crafting yet, so this can wait.
• Intellectual: Unless you started off in an extreme environment and need essential research (such as Hydroponics) then it's better that you focus on building up a working shelter for survival first, as research merely assists survival.
• Artistic: Early on you should not be making sculptures yet.

Traits

Besides this, you should also have a colonist with a decent trait selection.

These traits are especially harmful:

• Pyromaniac: This universally hated trait is even more dangerous in a rich explorer start because if your lone colonist breaks, nothing but the rain can extinguish the fires started.
• Volatile: Having your lone colonist break down is not a good thing to happen, as this will put them right out of action, stagnating progress.
• Brawler: Since you start off with a ranged weapon only, your will either need to craft a shiv, which is a terrible weapon to use, or have to face a lasting -20 mood penalty.

Some traits are more helpful:

• Industrious: Finishing your work faster means you can get more done. This is especially useful if only 1 colonist's doing everything.
• Fast learner: Improving your skills faster is very handy, as 1 colonist doing everything gives ample opportunity to train up skills.

At the beginning

The rich explorer start means that you have enough time to start off a decent crop plot and harvest from it, as well as build up a base with suitable defenses.

Starter weapon

Charge rifle

You start off with a charge rifle, a mid-late game ranged weapon with a high DPS. While this is fine for most people, you may want to watch out for Brawlers which will be upset by wielding a ranged weapon.

Settling down

At the start of your game, you should have your colonist build up a small roofed area to store your things under. Also build a small hut where your lone colonist will be living, and a table and chair to prevent the infamous 'Ate without table' debuff.

If you want to save effort, it's recommended that you board up one of the many ruins and use it as a temporary shelter.

Defenses

Like other scenarios you can build sandbags or move chunks around to provide cover for yourself.

Besides this, you have a good start ahead of the other starter scenarios in that you will have Gun turrets researched already. This allows you to build improvised turrets to hold off enemies until more colonists settle down.

Turrets should be surrounded by cover.

See also

• Basics - for survival with an industrial start in general, especially 'Crashlanded'
• Intermediate Midgame Guide - for continuing expansion. By that time you should have gone on track as a regular base.

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Guides

Progression

Quickstart Guides • Basics • Intermediate Midgame Guide • Advanced Endgame Guide • Ending the game

Scenarios

Lost Tribe Guide • Rich Explorer Guide • Naked Brutality Guide • The Mechanitor Guide

Survival

Extreme Heat Guide • Extreme Cold Guide • Extreme Desert Guide • Ice Sheet Guide • Sea Ice Guide • Events Guide

Combat

Defense tactics • Offense tactics • Weapon Guide

Construction

Colony Building Guide • Defense structures

Production

Food production • Money making guide

Other

Skill Training • Permadeath save conversion guide •
Ideology Min-Maxing